Coastal Oregon (10/5/24)

 We FINALLY made it to the coastline, and the first thing I thought is that man, I miss the smell of the ocean. Being from Massachusetts, I grew up going to the beach, and also owned an ocean going boat for much of my adulthood.

When Paul and I got married, we both sold our boats and bought one comfortable enough for us and my two kids to spend weekends on, so they grew up boating as well.

The second thing I thought is that, man, the water out here is rough.

We never did see many boats, and of course the water is so cold, its not very inviting.

But I loved being back on the beach and hearing the waves.

The Oregon coast has a lot of "waysides" which are pulloffs along the ocean- some have picnic tables, and they all pretty much have a great view:

One of the first things we wanted to check out was something called Thor’s Well….its some kind of water phenomenon. We thought we were looking at it when we saw this spout, and watched it for a while. When a big wave came in, the water would spew high into the air.

Its a good thing we read the signs because just as we were leaving, we discovered the real “Thor’s Well”

You can see the well in the following pictures. The well is full in the first photo and empties over the next few photos:

                            

                           

I didn’t expect there to be much in the way of hiking trails along the coast but there actually are quite a few.

We started with a trail that began at the Cape Perpetua Visitor Center and ended at the scenic lookout. It was about 3.5 miles up 850 feet.  We saw this weird tree along the way.

You can actually drive up to the scenic lookout but that would be no fun. The structure at the top was built by the CCC in the 1930s.

We found out we have friends in the area and went about making plans to get together. Many years ago Paul did a jet boat tour up the Rogue River, and he wanted to do it again.

Our friends Liz and Randy were nearby and joined us. It was funny because at the last minute we found out our friends Steve and Susan are around as well. They tried to join us but they were moving to another RV park that day so they couldn’t. However, coincidently they were driving by the jet boat place just as we were getting ready to board, so we chatted for a bit and made plans for the next day.

The jet boat ride was a blast.

There were no rapids but we went about 45 minutes up the river, stopped at a restaurant where we had lunch and then headed back.

It was hot out so we were kinda glad we got soaked.

Our driver was very good at spinning the boat 360 degrees, and finding plenty of ways to throw spray up into the boat.

The following day we packed a lunch and met up with Randy and Liz and Susan and Steve. None of us had ever been to Trees of Mystery which is a kind of hokey tourist attraction but was fun nonetheless.

                                        

                                                    

There are old growth trees throughout the property and a tram that takes you up the side of the hill. There were actually all kinds of things to see and do here. It has displays about about lumberjacks- Paul Bunyon in particular.

My favorite part was the canopy trail.

                      

The Trail of Tall Tales had some huge wood carvings….

Once we had had enough, we found a gorgeous spot on the beach to have our picnic lunch before saying goodbye.

                                          

Our final hike in the area was a short two mile hike in Redwoods State Park called the Grove of Titans, which is a walk through an old growth redwood forest. Even the road to get there is through a dense forest.

                                            

Once again we got the maps out and changed our game plan. We were going to stay along the coast and head to see more redwood forests, but we decided we wanted to see Lava Beds National Monument, and that is inland. So, off we went. We had forgotten that we wanted to see the small botanical garden across the street from out rv park, so we stopped there with the camper on our way out of town.

This small park protects one plant- the Darlingtonia Californica. It resembles a cobra, and eats insects.

They are lured inside the bulb by the nectar and become confused because there are a lot of transparent areas on the bulb that look like exits. Eventually the insect tires, and falls into a small pool of liquid at the bottom, where it gets digested. Eew.

Mount Hood area (10-1-24)

 We seem to be moving from one volcano to another this summer, because our next stop was the Mount Hood area. There are no visitor centers here,  just a small museum or two. ( spoiler alert, since I am writing this a month later, we visited 7 volcanos this summer, and visually saw a few more.)

This time, we were able to get decent views of the mountain the day we arrived, but it went downhill from there for a bit.

There is a small federal campground nearby, which is where we stayed. After setting up we went to the local museum. I found it fascinating that the 10th Mountain Division of the army was born here, during WWII.

The army needed men that could handle extreme cold conditions, and they basically hired the National Ski Patrol to train them. It was the only military division to grow out of a sport. Overall, 14,000 men were trained at the highest mountains in the United States.  They actually saw active combat in Italy, climbing an unclimbable cliff at night, overtaking the Germans below.

Afterwards we headed up the hill to the historic Timberline Lodge.

By the time we got to the parking lot we couldn’t see the lodge and actually went to the wrong building (the only one we could see).

There was a gift store there that had some interesting things for sale.

The lodge itself was built by the WPA in the mid 1930s, and dedicated by President Roosevelt in 1937. The speech he gave is posted on the wall, and there is a video of the building process for the lodge and surrounding outbuildings.

 

Some of what he said seemed to give me an idea of why he had the CCC and the WPA building and working on so many recreation areas while they were in force, including this one.

“I am very keen about travel, not only personally (you know that) but also travel for as many Americans as can possibly afford it because those Americans will be fulfilling a very desirable objective of our citizenship, getting to know their own country better. 

And the more they see of it the more they will realize the privileges which God and nature have given the American people. So I take very great pleasure in dedicating this new adjunct, not only of national prosperity but also as a place for generations of Americans to come, in the days to come.”

I feel like something like that happened for me when Paul and I sold the house in 2009 and began traveling the country full time. Over time we began to realize just how much there is to see in this country and how gorgeous it all is and how lucky we are.

Many of the furnishings in the lodge are original, and those that aren’t are very close copies.

There are several restaurants, and a couple of bars. We chose to have a drink in the bar, which had many cute sitting alcoves along with regular tables.

The following day was our “big” hike day. Although there were lots of clouds, the visibility was  better than the day before. We could see Mount Jefferson clearly, off in the distance.

The trail was 5 miles, with 900 ft of gain, to Zig Zag Canyon Overlook. We were glad by the time we got to the overlook that we weren’t descending into Zig Zag Canyon, since the trail looked exactly as the name implies it would.

On the way back we took our time, as the hawks kept circling directly over our heads, which is always fun to watch (took lots of pictures, but cell phone cameras don’t do hawks justice) 

Although hidden by clouds for most of the day, we did get some good looks at the mountain later in the day.

We had one more day in the area, and although I found out that Mount Hood is actually the second most climbed mountain in the world, second to Japan’s Mount Fuji, we were not going to be two of the 10,000 people who climb it each year.

Our final hike was much shorter at 3.5 miles. The loop trail took us through a meadow with views of the mountain, and ended at Umbrella Falls.

We took advantage of some down time to get out our maps and calendar. Our original intent this summer was to travel down the coast, from Washington to California- but we have been completely side tracked by volcano exploring. Anyway, we figured if we were going to get to the coast, we better do it soon, since summer is winding down. But first we had to make one more stop on the way.

The Trail of 10 Falls is a 9 mile hike that passes by 10 waterfalls. Even though we are kind of waterfalled out at this point, we wanted to do this hike, located in Silver Falls State Park, Oregon.

Some of the waterfalls warranted more than one photo, and some barely warranted any at all, but here are a few of my favorite shots: